Door stop

ABSTRACT

The door stop comprises a semi-crescent shaped wedge member having a highly polished or smooth door-engaging concave surface and a convex side having a floor-engaging surface of a rubberlike material. As the wedge member is advanced between the door and the floor, the lower side of the door travels or rides upwardly along the concave surface concurrently with a rolling of the convex side along the floor in a direction toward the large end of the wedge until the door is in a stop position.

United States Patent Newell [45] Dec. 19,1972

1 1 DOOR STOP [72] Inventor: Ronald C. Newell, 1812 2nd Ave. 5.,

Fort Dodge, lowa 50501 [22] Filed: Jan. 4, 1971 [2]] Appl. No.: 103,616

Sperry ..292/342 3,328,065 6/1967 Arenson ..292/343 Primary ExaminerDonald A. Griffin Attorney-Rudolph L. Lowell [57 ABSTRACT The door stop comprises a semi-crescent shaped wedge member having a highly polished or smooth door-engaging concave surface and a convex side having a floor-engaging surface of a rubber-like material. As the wedge member is advanced between the door and the floor, the lower side of the door travels or rides upwardly along the concave surface concurrently with a rolling of the convex side along the floor in a direction toward the large end of the wedge until th door is in a stop position.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEB 19 Arron/5K DOOR STOP SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The door stop is of a simple construction and efficient in operation to firmly hold a door against swinging movement in one direction. The opposite curved surfaces of the semi-crescent shaped wedge member cooperate in a door stop operation to concurrently raise and pry a door upwardly againstits hinge support in contrast to merely running the door up an inclined plane as occurs with the well-known door stop of a wedge shape having planar side surfaces. Also, by virtue of the door stop having a polished and smooth door-engaging surface in contrast to its rubber-like floor-engaging surface the advance of the door along the door stop takes place with a minimum of frictional resistance. Thus, any tendency of the door stop to be moved along the floor by the door, as the door stop is being wedged between the door and the floor, is substantially eliminated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. l-is a perspective view of a door assembly showing the door stop of this invention in an operating relation therewith;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged detailed perspective view of a lower corner portion of the door shown in FIG. 1 show ing the door stop in engagement therewith;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the door stop as seen on the line 3 3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the door stop.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawings, the door stop of this invention, designated generally as in FIG. 1, is shown in an operative relation with a door structure 11 for a door opening 12 formed in a wall 13. The door structure 11 includes a door frame 14 and usual hinge connection 16 to support a door 17 for horizontal swinging movement into and out of a closing position relative to the door opening 12. The door stop 10 (FIGS. land 2) is adapted to be inserted between the lower surface 18 of the door on a floor surface 20 to hold the door open against swinging movement to the closed position therefor.

The door stop (FIGS. 2 and 4) includes a one piece body member 19 of a semi-crescent wedge shape so as to have a pair of curved sides 21 and 22, hereinafter referred to as a door side and a floor side, respectively. The curved sides 21 and 22 are curved in the same direction and progressively converge in one direction inwardly toward each other to form a point or apex 23 at one end of the body member 19. This apex end 23 of the body member shall hereinafter be referred to as its leading end and the opposite end 24 thereof shall be referred to as the trailing or large end thereof. It is also seen that by virtue of the sides 21 and 22 of the body member 19 being curved in like directions that the door side 21 is concavely curved and the floor side 22 convexly curved relative to the body member.

The body member 19 is formed by generating the curved sides 21 and 22 thereof with radii having offset axes and relative lengths to provide at the leading end 23 an included angle A from about to 25 between the opposite sides of the body member. Referring to FIG. 3 wherein is illustrated a full size door stop 1,0,the radius for the concave door side is indicated at D and the radius for the convex floor side as F. In this embodiment each of the radii D and F is about 5% inches long with axes DA and FA, respectively, offset about 2 inches apart so as to form an included angle A of approximately 22. It has been found that satisfactory results are obtained when D and F are relatively varied between lengths offrom 4 /4 inches to about 5% inches.

In the use of the door stop 10, the body member 19 is wedged between the lower surface 18 of the door 17 and the floor surface 20 by initially inserting its leading end 23 between the door and the floor and then advancing the body member 19 toward the door. On engagement of the door lower surface 18, and particularly the. corner 26 thereof, with the concave door side'21, the door 17 tends to be forced upwardly by virtue of its travel upwardly along the door side 21. However, it will be noted that as the engaged door travels upwardly along the incline of the door side 21 that the body member is concurrently in rolling engagement with the floor surface 20 at a position indicated at 27, located nearer to the trailingend'24 of the body member than the engaged corner 26 of the door 17. As a result of this rolling action a progressively increasing thickness of the body member 19 is moved between the door 17 and the floor surface 20 so as to effect an upward prying or leverage action against the lower surface 18 of the door which is counteracted by the hinge connections 16 shown in FIG. 1.

It is seen, therefore, that the door is not merely forced upwardly along the inclined plane of the door side 21 during a wedging action of the door stop, as takes place in the well-known wedges having opposite planar sides, but that such advance concurrently effects an upwardly exerted leverage action having its fulcrum support at the contact zone 27 between the floor 20 and the floor side 22 of the body member. It will be readily appreciated that this leverage action along with the wedging action appreciably increases the frictional resistance between the body member 19 and the door.

To efficiently utilize this combination wedging and leverage action resulting from the crescent shaped body member 19 the floor side 22 thereof is covered with a rubber-like material, indicated at 28, formed with a serrated or roughened surface 29 to increase the frictional resistance with the floor surface 20. It will be noted from FIG. 3 that the advance of the door 17 upwardly along the curved door side 21 tends to move the door stop along the floor surface 20 in the same direction. The frictional resistance between the door and the body member 19 thus directly counteracts the frictional resistance between the body member and the floor tending to hold the door stop against movement by the door.

To utilize the advantage of the high frictional resistance between the body member 19 and the floor surface, the counteracting frictional resistance between the door and the body member 19 is reduced to a minimum. The door side 21 of the body member is thus provided with a smooth or highly polished surface so as to offer as little resistance as possible to the movement of the door along the door side 21. For this purpose a highly polished metal surface (not shown) may be provided, or if the body member 19 is formed of a hard wood material or the like the door side 21 thereof may be greased or similarly lubricated. However, it has been found that by forming the body member 19 of a suitable hard plastic material that the door side 21 thereof can be finished with a highly polished surface.

With further reference to FIG. 3, it will be seen that a plane, indicated at 31, arranged normal to the radius D at the zone of contact 26 between the door 17 and the door side 21 of the body member forms an included angle B with the lower surface 18 of the door. This angle represents generally the angle of inclination followed by the door lower surface 18 as it moves upwardly along the concave side 21 of the body member 19 during a door wedging operation. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 3 this angle is approximately Since the smaller the angle of inclination, the greater the mechanical advantage of a wedging action, it is seen that arelatively high frictional 20 efficiency is obtained by thedoor stop of this invention.

Although the invention has been described with respect to a preferred embodiment thereof, it is to be understood thatit is not to be so limitedsince. changes can be made therein which are within the full intended scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

Iclaim:

l. A door stop comprising:

a. a body member consisting of a generally semicrescent wedge shape adapted to be inserted v between the lower surface of a door and a floor surface,

b. said body member having a concave side and a convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of said convex side and concave side is between about 15 and and r said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side.

. A door stop comprising:

. a body member of a generally semi-crescent wedge shape adapted to be inserted between the lower surface of a'door and a floor surface,

b. said body member having a concave side anda convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of said convex side and concave sideis between about 15 and 25, and said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side,

wherein said body member is composed of a plastic material having the surface of the concave side thereof smooth and polished, andwherein said floor engaging surface consists of a cover convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of'gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of saidconvex-sideand concave side is between about 15 and 25, and said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side, wherein each of said radii is of a length of from about 4% inches to 5% inches, and said lower surface of the door forms an angle of about 10 with a plane normal to the radius of said concave side at the junction of said concave side with said lower surface.

4. The door stop member according to claim 3,

wherein:

a. said convex side is in rolling contact with the floor surface at a trailing position relative to said junction as said body member is advanced between said floor surface and door lower surface. 

1. A door stop comprising: a. a body member consisting of a generally semi-crescent wedge shape adapted to be inserted between the lower surface of a door and a floor surface, b. said body member having a concave side and a convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of said convex side and concave side is between about 15* and 25*, and c. said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side.
 2. A door stop comprising: a. a body member of a generally semi-crescent wedge shape adapted to be inserted between the lower surface of a door and a floor surface, b. said body member having a concave side and a convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of said convex side and concave side is between about 15* and 25*, and c. said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side, wherein said body member is composed of a plastic material having the surface of the concave side thereof smooth and polished, and wherein said floor engaging surface consists of a cover member of a rubber material secured to said convex side.
 3. A door stop comprising: a. a body member of a generally semi-crescent wedge shape adapted to be inserted between the lower surface of a door and a floor surface, b. said body member having a concave side and a convex side generated with radii of selective length, having corresponding centers of gyration relatively spaced so that the included angle at the leading end of said wedge shape body member formed by the convergence together of said convex side and concave side is between about 15* and 25*, and c. said convex side having a floor engaging surface composed of a material the frictional resistance of which with the floor is appreciably greater than the frictional resistance of the lower surface of the door with the surface of said concave side, wherein each of said radii is of a length of from about 4 1/4 inches to 5 3/4 inches, and said lower surface of the door forms an angle of about 10* with a plane normal to the radius of said concave side at the junction of said concave side with said lower surface.
 4. The door stop member according to claim 3, wherein: a. said convex side is in rolling contact with the floor surfacE at a trailing position relative to said junction as said body member is advanced between said floor surface and door lower surface. 